“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.” – Winston Churchill

I’m a huge fan of Winston Churchill and this quote is right on this time of year. I always get giddy during the holiday season. I enjoy the giving and grateful feelings that arise during this time of year. I also enjoy the time to relax, reflect, and the process of reviewing the year and how to move forward in the new.

What did I accomplish this year? Did I hit the goals I set for myself? What could I do better? Where could I focus my efforts in the New Year?

As I review things there are a few high points. The first is this blog. I didn’t realize how great it would be to create and write a blog. It’s awesome to see people from all over the world reading my postings and responding to them. The technology of today truly has created a global dialogue where people of different countries, cultures, and languages can interact with each other, learn about one another, and exchange ideas. It truly is a great time to be alive. Who knows what the future will bring. My guess is that we’ll see new devices, new technological breakthroughs, and a whole lot more.

I’ve written quite a bit about goal setting, self-discipline, leading a balanced life, and most recently about finding and pursuing your passion or life’s work. It’s hard to pursue these things when you’re supporting a family, working 9 to 5, and all the rest, but it is possible. If you are truly passionate about something, you’ll make it happen. For me, this year was the first year of my early retirement. I’ve found out a few things about myself that are quite interesting.

Retirement really isn’t retirement to me. I still have goals, I still have things I want to do in this life, and I still have a drive for a consistent and productive day. The only difference is that I am now in almost 100% control of my day. It is quite liberating, but also requires that much more self-discipline. Have you ever heard that saying, “The more rope you’re given, the more rope you’ll have to hang yourself”? This is the potential for retirement. You can either set up a daily schedule, plot out your goals and pursue them, or surf the net all day and get ZERO accomplished. Time will go by and you’ll wake up one day saying, “Where the hell did the year go?”

This year was a year of adjustment for me. Adjusting myself to a reduced income. Adjusting myself to all the time I have. Adjusting to living home with the parents and getting used to interacting with my Dad who loses more of his memory daily.

This month I’ll be finishing two books I read this time of year as part of my reflection. The first is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The second is Getting Things Done by David Allen. I thoroughly enjoy both books because they really get you thinking. They also provide some helpful frameworks for planning, setting goals, and pursuing excellence in all areas of a person’s life.

I’ll begin work on the first of many books this year. The first step was finding a local coffee shop I could go to for my writing. I found one! It is called the Exquisite Corpse and it is nice. It will be my haunt after I get done with my gym routine. I like writing in areas where there are other things going on. I don’t need absolute solitude to create. Right now, as I write this blog posting, I am listening to some music. Music is one of the keys to my writing.

The rest of this month, in and around the holidays, will be mapping out the first quarter of the year. What do I want to accomplish? What’s the goal for the entire year? Once I’ve got things mapped out it’s off to set up a daily schedule to accomplish the things I set out to do. I really look forward to the New Year.

Well, that’s it for today folks. I hope you’ve enjoyed my writings this year and hope to continue to improve this blog to gather more followers. It’s all about the content and I’m still refining mine.

“Your goals should be just out of reach, but not out of site.” – Denis Waitley and Remi Witt

I think this is a novel idea and one that will definitely help you avoid the frustration caused by biting off more than you can chew. We’ve all done it right? We start out with a really cool goal that we are very motivated to complete only to find out that we lose steam or figure out we set our sights too high. Failing sucks right?

The suggestion here is to set a goal just out of reach. Let’s use reading for example. Assume you are pretty good at reading one book a month. That works out to 12 books a year. A reasonable goal would be to increase to 16 books a year because you would literally add one book to your reading schedule every 3 months. If we doubled our goal to 24 months it may be a bit too much. This is the difference between a stretch goal and one that is out of site. I’m not saying a person couldn’t stretch to 24 books a year, but it would definitely cause a pretty decent lifestyle change to double one’s reading capacity in one year.

Progression doesn’t have to be drastic. Like the example above, there’s no doubt a person couldn’t add 4 more books to their 12-book reading schedule in a year without causing too much stress. You would still read more than the year before but would meet this goal with some extra time spent in your library or den. This is what it means by stretching.

When setting goals, think small, incremental changes. These changes will build over time. They will continue to add value to your life, while not disrupting it.

One question you may have is how to set a goal for something you’ve never done before. This is a really good question and one you need to think about before setting your goal. The easiest way to get this answer is to seek out other people who have done the same thing. Find out from them what a realistic starting point would be. Then, set that goal and go for it. If you miss by a little bit, that’s ok. Adjust the goal downward or give it another go for the next 90 days. Whatever process you use is ok, as long as you can get to the finish line.

Start small, progress slowly, and celebrate your wins. This is truly the best way to set goals and achieve them and continue setting and achieving goals throughout your life. Simplicity is always the basis of truth. I’ve found this over and over again.

“One part at a time, one day at a time, we can accomplish any goal we set for ourselves.” – Karen Casey

I like using weightlifting metaphors when discussing quotes like this. If you go to the gym and increase the weight you lift each time by 5-10 lbs, you can see how much weight you’ll be pushing by the end of the year. Realistically, this would be a difficult thing to do, as our bodies adjust to the increased stress and will plateau at various points.

Karen’s point is that if we just do a little bit of work towards our goals, we will achieve them. Some will take longer than others, but the results will be the same, provided you are taking the “right” actions to achieve your goals. Working out and then going home and drinking, smoking, and shoving your face full of junk food is counter-productive. You are literally working against yourself. This is just an example. I think you get the point.

I tend to set and work toward goals that are roughly 13 weeks. In 13 weeks I can read 3-4 books. In 13 weeks I can lose 13lbs or gain 13lbs. In 13 weeks I can write 91 pages. This is what incremental progression looks like and can produce as long as you carve out a little bit of time to achieve those daily goals that contribute to the weekly, quarterly and annual goals you set for yourself.

Take any goal you set. Break it down into easily accomplished tasks that will take roughly 13 weeks to accomplish and then figure out what you need to do each day to accomplish it. Here’s a quick walkthrough.

Let’s say I want to finish 3 books in 13 weeks. I figure out there are 40 chapters in all of the books I’ve identified. That’s roughly 1 chapter in each book per week. Now I take three days (Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday) and will read one book’s chapter on Saturday, another book’s chapter on Sunday, and another book’s chapter on Thursday. Easy right? After seeing how this exercise worked, is there any doubt in your mind that you would not be able to knock out all three books by the end of your 13-week goal period? No, as long as you stick to the plan, you’ll get there without any doubt.

You can do this with anything you are looking to accomplish. One piece of advice. There are some goals that will take you longer than 13 weeks obviously. In this case, you’ll have to break that goal down into smaller chunks, so that your “piece” of that goal can be accomplished in 13 weeks.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. I can help you with one of your goals if you need assistance.

Regret. It is a bad feeling, particularly when you beat yourself up over it. Don’t. We make decisions. Sometimes they are bad. Sometimes they are good.

Learn from them. Make adjustments.

Goal Setting, pursuing goals, and all the rest is a personal preference. Start on those goals, but stick with those goals you can knock out in 90-100 days. If you have a big goal like getting a degree, that’s ok. Break this big goal down over each of these 90-day periods. Perhaps, your goal would be to get an A in your class.

Goals should cover a few areas. I like to focus on four key areas for my goals. Mental – learn something new; Physical – workout; Social – make new friends and network; Spiritual – read my Bible daily and meditate. To measure these I set specific goals that I can track. By setting a timetable, I try to set achievable goals that I can meet with effort in 13 weeks. If you haven’t heard about it, there’s a great acronym for goal setting. It’s called S M A R T.

Check this link out for more detail. Here’s an example for my Mental area.

I will read 3 non-fiction books by Feb 1, 2018, to learn more about writing novels.

This goal is specific to learning (Mental), it is measurable (3 books is 3 books), it is achievable (reading a chapter a day), relevant to my future writing career, and time-bound (due on February 1, 2018). This is as simple as it gets. You can set these goals for any area of your life. Try this out. Start out simple. Maybe you can only pursue 1 goal for the next 13 weeks. Figure out the total amount of work you have to do and spread it out monthly, weekly, and daily. You’ll be amazed how much you can get done. You’ll also be amazed how quickly you’ll attain some of your goals with the right daily focus.

There are a lot of people who do not have any goals. There are others who are goal oriented. What is best? Personally, I think goal setting is a good practice. I only choose 3 things to pursue during a 13-week period. I started this practice when I picked up the BestSelf company’s journal.

I would like to pursue 4 goals the next time around because I am a firm believer in a balanced life. My articles on the mental, spiritual, physical, and social domains are part of my belief system. Subsequently, this next 13 weeks will focus on all four areas.

Mentally, I like reading to learn and be entertained. I will read at least 3 books during the next 13 weeks. Spiritually I enjoy meditation and will goal myself to meditate twice a day (morning and evening). My physical goal is to lose 11% body fat. I’m currently at 26% and would like to reduce down to 15%. Finally, I would like to pursue 100 more readers on this blog (Social). Wish me luck!!

These will be my goals starting in November, once I finish my current journal. I just received my new journal and will begin setting it up in the last week of October. I enjoy setting goals and achieving them. There is always a rush when a goal is checked off!

It is also recommended to make your goals public. They are above! To make this even more interesting (for me), I’ll begin tracking these goals and be updating my results with you on a weekly basis (Saturday when I post my weekly favorite Ted Talk).

“If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals. ” – Lou Holtz

One of my goals is to continue to improve my body through exercise, proper supplementation, diet, and sleep. I am driven by this goal. The first thing I do each day is drinking my pre-workout, looking at my workout routine for the day, and heading to the gym, without fail. This is what Lou Holtz is talking about.

I try to keep myself balanced by only working on three goals at a time. Too many goals spread me out too much and I lose the necessary focus. I also try to keep my daily priority tasks to three things as well and complete them without fail.

If you’ve read some of my other postings, I tend to focus on four areas: Mental, Physical, Social, and Spiritual. These areas keep me focused on what is most important to me and helps me continue to improve each of these areas one step at a time.

One thing I measure is my interest level in a particular goal. Sometimes I need to shift my priorities. If I feel like I’m pulling teeth to do something, I put a hold on that goal and replace it with something else. This way, I focus on the things I really want to do at the moment and stick with them for around 12-13 weeks. I measure my progress weekly and continually measure my interest level. I don’t erase the goal mind you but put it on hold.

Life is too short to force myself to do things I just don’t want to do. Enjoy your life. Set goals you want to achieve and have no issue working on daily. You’ll find you are more productive and you’ll also enjoy your day more.

Well, that’s it for today folks.

As always, thank you for visiting and reading my postings. I wish you well in the pursuit of your goals and hope you have a great Thursday!

“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris

I am so bad at this! I’m always over-scheduling what I can get done in a day and realize my mistake when it’s too late. Have you ever done this?

I’ve read quite a few books on planning, managing our time, minimizing our actions when forging new habits, and journaling. The one theme that continues across this spectrum of books is this: focus on less to get more done.

Makes sense right? If you have three really important goals you want to accomplish in the next quarter, we should probably focus on the three things that push us toward accomplishing these goals on a daily basis. This is the choice we have to make and for me, it has always been difficult. I guess I do not like to commit, but perhaps it is more than that. I’ve always been driven to win, to succeed, to compete. Why can’t I do 10 things today? Because it spreads us too thin.

So, I focus on the three goals I have currently. Increasing strength by 20%, finish reading three books and complete the rough draft of my recruiting book by October. This is really easy to do because I’ve already completed two of these goals way in advance (strength and reading). Now it’s the rough draft.

Try this for yourself. Set three things you want to accomplish in the next 90 days. Focus on doing one thing each day that gets you closer to accomplishing them. You’ll be amazed at the results.

“Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction.” – Author Unknown

This quote is really important because many times if we are moving too quickly without a plan of action we end up making a lot of mistakes, building out a product or deliverable of low quality, or end up in a position that we really weren’t looking to be in. How do we avoid this mistake? We plan.

Planning is the way we bring an idea into fruition. We say I want to read so many books by this date. We look at the time we are allotting ourselves and then we determine how many pages we have to read per day to achieve our goal. Let’s say we have to read 10 pages to achieve our goal. That means you have to schedule time each day to read 10 pages. Simple right?

This is the same process we can use for anything. My example is pretty simple. Some other goals or projects may be more complicated. The key is to really brainstorm and document where you are now and where you want to be. Set a realistic time frame to accomplish your goal and be flexible. You may find after a few days, for example, that the book you’re reading just isn’t interesting. Drop the book and pick up another one. Readjust the plan a bit to accommodate your new requirements and continue moving forward.

“Good things come to people who wait, but better things come to those who go out and get them.” – Anonymous

This is a great quote and so apropos, considering the last few quotes I’ve posted. This is about truly committing to doing something and going for it. This applies to everything.

Sure, you can wait for the right person to come into your life, but why wait? If you are interested in finding a guy or gal, start going after it. You can use dating apps, visit places the people you would like to meet frequent, or even just reach out to your network and notify those closest to you to keep an eye out for someone who might be looking as well.

The same thing goes for anything else. You won’t achieve what you want or get what you want by waiting for it. Decide what you want, set a plan of action, and execute. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it and avoid over thinking it.